Thousands more dead fish surface in Marina del Rey harbor

In the Marina Del Rey harbor, Basin A, a massive die off of anchovies began early Sunday due to depleted oxygen levels in the water. Crews were out there Monday cleaning up the mess. Photo by Brad Graverson/Mon. May 19, 2014/The Daily Breeze

In the Marina Del Rey harbor, Basin A, a massive die off of anchovies began early Sunday due to depleted oxygen levels in the water. Crews were out there Monday cleaning up the mess. Photo by Brad Graverson/Mon. May 19, 2014/The Daily Breeze

County workers filled about 150 garbage bags with dead anchovies and other fish Monday afternoon that might have fallen victim to deoxygenated water inside the harbor at Marina del Rey this weekend.

In all, tens of thousands of fish were scooped into about 300 garbage bags after a massive die-off Saturday night brought concern from the community over heaps of dead, rotting fish piling up in the upscale marina. The dead fish are intended to be composted and used for fertilizer.

Passers-by have been stopping to ogle at the blanket of dead fish and the swarms of pelicans and sea gulls feasting on them, and workers from the county Department of Beaches and Harbors spent Sunday and Monday pulling them out of the water.

Michael Quill, community programs manager for the environmental group Los Angeles Waterkeeper, told a television station, “It was like a Hitchcock movie.”

“There were so many birds diving into the water and feeding. You could see the silver of the fish underwater, it was crazy,” Quill told KABC

Carol Baker, a spokeswoman for the Department of Beaches and Harbors, said the cleanup job seemed nearly done over the weekend. And then thousands more dead fish appeared Monday morning.

“We thought we had about 90 percent of the basin cleared Sunday, but Monday morning there was a new bunch of dead fish,” Baker said. “It’s unclear whether they’re a fresh die-off or if they bubbled up from the bottom to the surface. They looked pretty bloated.”

Most of the dead fish gathered near the harbor’s entrance on Bora Bora Way near Via Marina, and Baker said this is the first time an incident like this has occurred in Marina del Rey.

Similar so-called “fish kills” are usually caused by algae blooms that deplete oxygen levels, high temperatures or disease, officials said. The Marina del Rey fish apparently traveled en masse into the marina, where water circulation is not as good as in the open ocean.

Janice Mackay, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — the agency charged with investigating what killed these fish — said biologists were expected to take water samples and begin researching the incident Monday.

“This is not uncommon,” Mackay said. “Fish die-offs happen from time to time for a variety of reasons.”

Baker said that the Marina del Rey cleanup was largely finished Monday, but that it would take some time to remove smaller pockets of dead fish that accumulated in hard-to-reach places. Only one of the harbor’s eight basins was largely impacted by this die-off.

“We’ll clean up the bulk on the surface where the heaps of fish are but it will be a painstaking process clearing the fish that are surrounding vessels in the docks,” Baker said, adding that private boat owners would have to remove carcasses gathered along their vessels.

“Our debris boat cannot get in there and it will have to be done by hand, with nets and poles.”